Loongson Godson. Just half a dream.

I only heard about this chinese chip called the 'Godson' today.Apparently China has been developing it's own cpu. Because ofthe architecture, it won't run windows and so is probably targetedfor linux with chinese support - but don't get excited yet.

The most info I got was from the wiki: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godson >which points to a pic here: < http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2006-11-20/00141245061.shtml >

Current ranges are from 500mhz to 800mhz (Godson II) with theGodson III rumoured to reach 1GHz. Similar to AMD and VIA, theperformances have been compared to the Intel range at higherclock rates but at cheaper prices.

I couldn't very much find out any more, but what did catch my eyewas the power rating : 3W(600Mhz) 5W(800Mhz), hey! now you'retalking!, this puts it in the territory of the VIA fanless series.

The downside ofcourse is that wouldn't run DSL (poof - dream dieshere) since it's not i386. Debian is known to run on otherarchitectures such as PowerPC, but think of the manpower behindthat, the kernel, the re-compiling, the drivers. Just goes to showhow dependent we are on the i386 - eh?

Posted by lucky13 on Mar. 06 2007,16:36

Quote (humpty @ Mar. 06 2007,08:56)

The downside ofcourse is that wouldn't run DSL (poof - dream dieshere) since it's not i386. Debian is known to run on otherarchitectures such as PowerPC, but think of the manpower behindthat, the kernel, the re-compiling, the drivers. Just goes to showhow dependent we are on the i386 - eh?

From your wiki link:

Quote

...[T]he chip uses a modified version of the MIPS instruction set that replaces proprietary instructions with ones developed by ICT.

I don't think we're dependent, per se, it's just that our technical culture favors standards-compliance and the de facto standard for PC (and now even Mac) architecture is x86. That's a good thing because it reduces the amount of work it would take to make systems work -- either by themselves or networked together -- otherwise. Any new chip based on a different instruction set than x86 is going to have to comply with another known standard if its manufacturers want global adoption of it. Evolution, not revolution.